Tomorrow's Leaders

eople in leadership roles in today's government say that in order to run their organizations effectively, the next generation of executive branch leaders will have to be:

Flexible. "Government will have to attract people who can deal with increased uncertainty. In the past, we have attracted people who wanted stability and certainty. It isn't there anymore. We will need people who are flexible enough to operate in the face of ambiguity and uncertainty."-Jill Lytle, Department of Energy.

Mobile. "Future leaders will need to accept high visibility, challenging work assignments. They must be willing to be mobile and accept senior jobs in different parts of their agency. People need more experiences."-James Milhoan, Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Value-driven. "A leader's job is to help the organization define its values. The leader can't impose values, but he or she can help the organization articulate its implicit set of values."-Curtis Smith, Federal Executive Institute.

Risk-takers. "We have traditionally created a risk-averse environment. The next generation is going to have take risks and experiment with new ways to provide services."-Peter Rabideau, Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Change agents. "Our new leaders will have to be change agents, much more so than in the past. They will have to have a healthy cynicism about the status quo."-David Leclaire, Department of Energy.

Entrepreneurs. "The next generation will continue to deal with declining resources. They are going to have to be entrepreneurial, creative and resourceful." -Tom Dausch, Office of Personnel Management.

Counselors. "Future leaders will have to increasingly focus on people as part of their mission, cultivating ownership by their staff."-Elinor Adensam, Nuclear Regulatory Commission.